I'm teaching an English 1001 course, and am looking to diversify my students' reading with lots of different stuff - last year (my first) I did long-form journalism from the last five years, this year I wanted to mix things up a bit.
Since my field is English, I'm coming to r/history looking for the best history essays available. Note that I'm not looking for history essays that redefined the field - I'm looking for essays that are really interesting, creative, and enjoyable to read. I know that's a bit subjective - if it helps, consider that I'll be sharing these with college freshman who may have no prior interest in history. I'd prefer if they were essays I'd be able to find on Jstor or Project Muse (but feel free to suggest book chapters or harder-to-find essays).
As an example, one of the essays I'm considering is Jeffery Todd Knight's "Fast Bind, Fast Find: The History of the Book and the Modern Collection." Here's the first two paragraphs:
In 1799 at Cambridge, a cataloguer named William Pugh was dismissed from his post for making insufficient progress on a new category of books, the "AB class," which was to comprise all valuable specimens of early printing then held in the university's Royal Library. Pugh, a respected fellow at Trinity College, had been at the job for nearly ten years, having been hired almost immediately after taking his bachelor's degree on the strength of his reputation as a voracious reader. He was widely knowledgeable and passionate about working with rare books. But, according to contemporary accounts, he was also eccentric, and eventually he became slovenly, obsessive, and antisocial. After his dismissal from the library, Pugh reportedly "dreaded the society of everybody." He would lock himself in his room for long periods, emerging suddenly to scandalize the college by throwing all his linens in the Cam or by doing something comparably erratic. One evening at the height of his madness, and after a rash of unexplained vandalism in the town, Pugh was spotted outside of his room and followed. On leaving the college grounds, he went down to the water's edge, and from among the water flags and duck-weed brought up a long stick. This he seized and hurried back to the street. No sooner had he got there than the frenzy seemed to seize him. He gnashed his teeth and rushed along like a madman. Presently he saw a lamp . . . and with a loud oath exclaimed "You are Robespierre" and dashed it to pieces with his stick. So he went on with the others, crying Danton, St Just and other names till he had broken six or eight, when he returned to the ditch, hid his stick, and made his way back to the college.
Tolerance for fellows' eccentricities was high at the time, but the incident was enough for Pugh to be dismissed from college and declared insane. Many years later, he was said to have regained some of his former reputation, but he never returned to work. According to contemporaries, "he still had a somewhat insane look."
The essay is about how books used to contain a bunch of different works binded together, but earlier librarians took them apart and separated them into single works. It caused us to lose a lot of insight into how people read, and what sorts of connections they drew between disparate texts. But it does so, in part, through the story of a late-18th century madman who refused to "properly" catalogue books.
TL;DR Know any good essays on history?
I'll make a case for Gregory Schopen's "Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism"
It may require a little extra work explaining some of the vocabulary for different archaeological features of Indian monasteries, as well as a little context around early Buddhism, but it's a great essay. Schopen looks at a lot of archaeological surveys of Indian monastic sites, and argues that European archaeologists have repeatedly ignored physical evidence about monastic life, in order to reconcile the archaeological record with written rules for monastic living, despite the fact that the surviving texts on monastic life generally post-date the earliest archaeological evidence. For example, archaeologists have tended to explain away evidence of commercial activity at Buddhist monasteries, since texts forbade the owning of property or money.
Schopen connects this historiographic trend with a typically Christian/Protestant emphasis on textual primacy, saying that western scholars have assumed that Buddhist texts occupied a place in early Buddhism similar to the role occupied by the Bible. Schopen then expands the essay to show how scholars have done similar things in the study of early Christianity, making distinctions between "the religious practices of early Christians" and "early Christianity," where these practices are in conflict with a modern, textually-based understanding of Christian belief.
Schopen's essay doesn't have a great narrative hook, like the example you posted, but I think it's got some great teaching moments. It could allow for discussion about how textual and material evidence is used in history, and how we deal with conflicts between the two. Introductory history classes are usually very text-heavy, and I think this could be a good way to get some materiality into a course without actually making students do Archaeology. It's also a good essay on the nature of religion and how religious beliefs, in a historical context, are much more complex and mutable than we often give them credit for.
It's been a year or two since I read it, so it may be a lot denser and less accessible than I remember, but I'd recommend giving it a try; it definitely blew my mind as an undergrad.